But a few letters and some punctuation doesn't quite cover it, so I went looking for some less subjective assessments of how the week's two big tech to-dos turned out. Twitter trend analytics service Hashtags.org helped out on that front with a handy graph showing the use of #iPhone5 and #WiiU tags from Tuesday night through Thursday afternoon.

Hashtags.org data underscores the challenge Nintendo faced in cutting through the buzz over Apple's latest iPhone.

It's not a fair fight by any means. Even at the Wii U hashtag's peak use in the moments after the Nintendo conference concluded, the flashy new console was trailing the Twitter buzz surrounding the IPhone 5. And that was almost a full day after all the details of Apple's new phone had been confirmed in a presentation that wasn't even streamed online.

While it's obvious that Apple and Nintendo's social buzz operate in different orders of magnitude these days, it wasn't always that way. A Google Trends comparison of the search terms "Wii" and "iPhone" (below) shows that as recently as the 2009 holiday season, the two were at least in the same ballpark.

Context-light data aside, a lap around some of the biggest mainstream news sites in the world Thursday afternoon revealed more anecdotal evidence of the Wii U event's difficulty creating a stir.

Several hours after Nintendo wrapped up its event, Time.com's Technland blog had four featured stories at the top of the page, and the Wii U couldn't push news from the Apple event out of any one of them. Nintendo's new console was all-but-invisible on the New York Times site, appearing on neither the technology nor the arts section front pages. The Wall Street Journal at least gave the Wii U news a thumbnail picture and headline in its technology section, but it was posted well into the afternoon and displayed underneath 10 iPhone-related headlines.

Google Trends shows holiday 2009 as the last time Wii search volume was on par with that of the iPhone.

Across the pond, The Guardian's tech section gave the Wii U prominent placement on its front page, but saved the featured art slot for an iPhone follow-up. The Daily Mail science section did the same. And El Mundo carried the Wii U news on its tech section front, but without art, and subordinate to a blog post about how leaks had made the Apple event seem routine.

And then there was the Daily Telegraph, which, like its peers, covered the Wii U, but tossed the news into the virtual back pages, beneath an awe-inspiring all-Apple assault of articles, with separate stories for the device's earphones, analysts' reaction, picture galleries, and an editorial stating that the event yielded "no surprises."

Perhaps the most telling moment of the day's mainstream media trawl came in the way USA Today covered the event. Back in 2005, console gaming was front-page news for the paper. Nintendo even let USA Today spill the beans on the Wii (then called the Revolution) hours before its big Electronic Entertainment Expo briefing that featured the system's unveiling as its finale. Seven years later, Nintendo just doesn't carry the same urgency for the paper. Moments after Nintendo's Wii U event ended, I couldn't find the news anywhere on the USA Today site, not even on its game-specific page. Instead, I found a farewell post from the paper's Game Hunters blog, explaining that the paper and its sites are undergoing a massive redesign, and the game-specific blog "won't be a part of that plan."

As for follow-ups, The Sun today posted a follow-up story on the Wii U, but it's not quite a marketing triumph for Nintendo when the headline screams, "Will you be picking up a Wii U? Here's five reasons not to." Among other things, the article says the system is "dramatically overpriced," will be outdated in a year, and is unnecessary considering Sony's recently announced PlayStation Vita-PS3 cross-functionality.

The top of the Daily Telegraph's tech section front page on Thursday. Not pictured: The Wii U launch date story.

According to freelance journalist Chris Morris (who has covered games for CNN, Forbes, Variety, and more), the problem isn't that big media cares less about traditional gaming; it's that there's less to care about.
"Retail sales are down considerably (at least as seen through NPD)," Morris told GamesIndustry. "The consoles are long in the tooth. And there hasn't been a surprise breakaway blockbuster for some time. Call of Duty is still a huge seller, but those numbers are never a surprise now. Those are the sorts of things that ping the radar of many mainstream outlets."

Compare that to the mobile and social spaces that have attracted headlines in recent years, from Apple's annual iPhone unveilings to the Zynga and Facebook IPOs. While Morris expects that phones and tablets will continue growing in gaming significance, he added that the new generation of traditional consoles (and even big releases along the lines of a new Grand Theft Auto) could make gaming coverage more appealing to mainstream media's gatekeepers.

"Convincing editors to write about the video game industry has always been a dicey affair for as long as I've been doing this for national outlets (over 15 years now)," Morris said. "And since games seem to be largely running on autopilot these days, that makes it even harder. But I think it's cyclical, just like this industry."

As for the Wii U specifically, Morris noted that the original Wii was not an instant phenomenon either, benefiting from inspired PR and marketing work and post-launch supply shortages that made it the hottest holiday gift of the year.

"If the Wii U proves to be as groundbreaking as the Wii, we'll likely see another surge of coverage," Morris said. "But so far, the general reaction from investors and the general public to the system has been a collective shoulder shrug. Many people see it simply as a Wii HD (which underscores the marketing problem Nintendo faces). Also, Nintendo has done virtually nothing to market it, withholding key details until just recently. So there hasn't been anything to write about."

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You people just don't get it, do you? Home consoles and smart phones don't have enough overlap to make this even worth looking into, much less making a whole article about it.

And Apple would overshadow any announcement short of a pronouncement for nuclear war. But it's irrelevant as the media that needed to truly cover the event, covered the event. The media that fawns over Apple, fawned over Apple.

In my experience Jim., you're wrong about the overlap. I bought my first ever Apple product this year, the new iPad. I own a 360 and a Wii at home, as well as gaming on my laptop. The iPad has taken over almost all of my gaming in the home and it's not just me, other friends are telling me the same.

Day by day Apple is not just eating 3DS/Vita's lunch, it's creeping into the console space too.

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Wesley Williams on 17th September 2012 10:38pm

I agree with Jim. Apple gets the general media headlines these days for two reasons: It makes iPhones and iPads. That's a pretty easy subject for cable news, national papers, etc. to snatch up and run with. Apple also does computers and operating systems, but I never quite see the same level of hype and headlines surrounding those product releases.

I've never known Nintendo to be a headline grabber in all the years I've been playing the systems. That's why I subscribed to the soon-to-be defunct Nintendo Power. The Wii back in 2006 was the exception, and I think that's because Nintendo was a bit more aggressive in marketing that particular product. Wii U is a bit more of the traditional understated Nintendo launch I'm used to seeing - big news in the gaming world but not really anywhere else.

Apple is creeping into a lot of spaces these days, and gaming is an obvious market for the type of products the company produces. But I don't see console gaming dying until traditional console gamers are satisfied their tablets and phones can replace the type of experience consoles provide.

My guess is based on the Wii U pre-order numbers, which is almost certainly made up of traditional console gamers, that day hasn't yet arrived.

This is a load of crap, this data is irrelevant to the kind of effect that the buzz has generated. Just look at the pre-orders being sold out less than a week after the announcement. Until Apple's devices themselves start sprouting a D-pad, analog sticks and physical buttons, it will not be taken seriously as a full-fledged gaming machine.

The point is that Apple's product is getting all the mass media attention, and the Wii U could have had a good share of that if they had held their press event at some other time. Nintendo will certainly sell a lot of Wii U's immediately to hardcore fans, but if they want the console to succeed on anywhere near the scale of the Wii they will need a much broader market base than hardcore gamers.

The other point is that game publishers are looking at installed base of hardware when they decide where to invest development dollars, and part of what influences that is the media buzz as well as sheer numbers. With iPhones selling at 10x the rate of consoles, and iPads at 5x the rate (not even counting Android phones and tablets), console manufacturers need to be concerned about third-party support in the future.

Early adopters will early adopt, but that uptake is unlikely to be sustained. If Ninty has half a million units ready at launch, they will sell them all, but it's later on they need to worry about. What happens after the – relatively small, I feel – global community of Nintendo hangabouts have their machine? Does the rest of the world care enough to sustain the uptake?

Personally, I don't think so. Prediction: Million/Million and a half units sold, then those sales drop off a cliff. Like the article says, among the mainstream it's already being perceived as an HD Wii. And, you know, it kind of is.

I might be wrong, but we'll see. The only thing we can be sure of is that selling out on day one is no clear indicator of long-term success.

I would agree with comments that the WiiU and iPhone5 are two slightly different markets with a small percentage of overlap rather than direct competitors. But in terms of marketing, you have to ask yourself how many more people would know about the WiiU if the iPhone5 hadn't being announced? To me its more of a problem that all the people spamming WiiU got overshadowed by the iPhone5. When your launching a console in only a few months its a major problem making people aware of your product. If I do not start to see major website, billboard and tv advertising I would be really worried.

The WiiU to me has been falling short since its announcement, with the mixed messages and confusion of the consumer to the all but abrupt announcement of there launch. I know that I will be buying one, but I'm a hardcore gamer and developer. Look at your average person. The teenager gamer in school and the family casual gamer. Do they even know the WiiU exists? If they do what is Nintendo providing that would want them to replace there PS3 or 360...

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Richard Gardner on 18th September 2012 8:40am

Sadly, even if you work in the games industry that doesn't mean you know shit about how it works.

The idea that some gamers are 'truer' than others is pure silliness. I don't even care about the WiiU or gaming on mobile platforms but that doesn't mean I'm going to sneer at those who do. That's just idiotic elitism.

Nintendo's strategy is quite classic, sell for the hardcore first, as the majority of the audience will just wait until there are more games, which will take a year or two appear and then the numbers will start building.
I did work for them, for Sony, for Microsoft. All of them sold 50+ million devices in 5 years, and uncountable amount of games. Just like Apple. While what Apple did was spectacular, they sold only 140m devices (ipad/iphone/ipads combined), which is only slightly more than 360 and ps3 combined.
What Apple is good at - is making profit. Lets wait, and see if Nintendo can do it again.

Personally I don't think this matters right now. Any mainstream Wii U 'buzz' would die down after Christmas anyway, unless it was a cultural phenomenon the way the Wii was. I'm most inclined to agree with Jim, though I do believe there is some overlap between Apple and Nintendo--but there isn't enough to wreck Nintendo's chances of success. I also think the amount of 'buzz' generated in the hobbyist gamer market (this is the first home console launch for six years) is enough 'buzz' for the Wii U for a few months. It's also important to note that these column inches don't dictate sales, and that when Nintendo next announce more software (presumably more will come before the end of the year, and more at their next couple of financial briefings) the eyes of the gaming press and hobbyist consumers will again be drawn their way. Nintendo biggest challenge--as I've said elsewhere and as Dan has hinted here--isn't selling out this Christmas, it's sustaining momentum through next year.

We heard similar arguments around the 3DS launch last year, and however badly Nintendo messed up--in fact, let's recount how badly they messed up: over-priced in every market, very poor software line up (much worse than Wii U's initial offerings), no online store, confused marketing message, launched in the West along side a huge game (Pokemon B/W) for its much cheaper predecessor, and no must have software on the horizon outside of Ocarina 3D. And despite that, Nintendo sold 3.6 million units in one month. The following quarter was where these problems manifested themselves, and sales did drop off a cliff. The media perpetuated the message that in the face of iOS and Android, 3DS wouldn't just fail to reach the astonishing heights of its predecessor, but that it would fail to make any significant headway. Now that some of the 3DS's problems have been solved, the system is sitting pretty at 20 million units in 18 months, and sales are climbing globally--a strong start for any dedicated games device. So we have our first lesson--the direct overlap between tablets and smartphones, or the iOS and Android ecosystems, isn't strong enough to completely derail a dedicated gaming device, even a handheld where (we can assume) the overlap is bigger, despite the collected wisdom of the games industry and media saying otherwise for months on end. Our second important lesson--Nintendo had, and still have, the financial assets to take a huge price cut if they need to, especially now they have their new system selling in greater numbers at a profit. Thirdly, our most important lesson; Nintendo have the capability to bring system selling games to their hardware ahead of schedule if they need to. As Mr.Fahey's excellent recent editorial pointed out, Nintendo still bring excellent software to the table, and that is still what sells hardware, even in the age where Apple get the majority of the mainstream press coverage if they so much as sneeze.

But let's look at the situation Wii U faces. It's priced well enough in Japan and the United States, considering the expensive controller and unfavourable exchange rates that have hammered Nintendo for the last 12 months at least. I think it's become over-priced in Europe because Nintendo stupidly refused to set an SRP, and retailers are currently wringing every penny they can from the device. If Zavvi and smaller sites are any indication, those prices will drop from £300 down to the £260-£270 range for the premium model as launch approaches. If not, I think Nintendo will struggle in Europe, and will either need to set an SRP (if they can do that post-launch) or cut the trade price to bring shelf prices down.

Now let's look at the other facts. The software line-up is strong. It's not deep, but it is broad and diverse, and before March, many major and minor franchises will have made their way to Wii U. Success is virtually assured in Japan, thanks to the combination of Dragon Quest X, Monster Hunter Ultimate and Mario Brothers. Add to that more Japan orientated fare like Pikmin 3, Game & Wario and Bayonetta 2, and Nintendo will have no trouble building momentum in their homeland. Success is virtually guaranteed in the US (where pre-order allocations have already sold out) thanks to the time of year, and the strong launch window line up. 2D Mario's selling power is not to be sniffed at, and Call of Duty at launch is an important message to gamers in the States that the big third party games really are here. Importantly, there aren't just cross-platform games and Nintendo titles available, there are some exclusives (Zombie U, Rayman Legends, LEGO City Stories, Scribblenauts, Wonderful 101) and there's an important sign of future exclusives in Bayonetta 2. Europe's line up is weaker, and again, I feel Nintendo will struggle in Europe.

But let's put that into perspective. No single title has the selling power of Wii Sports, and outside of Mario, Nintendo haven't really shown us a game that will sell well for months or even years yet. Long-term concerns are understandable. But what Nintendo have shown, is a far more balanced launch line up than the Wii ever hoped to have. If we look at the Wii, the launch line up included a 50 hour epic Zelda, a distinctly average and rushed third party IP in Red Steel, a good party game in Rayman Raving Rabbids, and a light but very mainstream Wii Sports pack-in.
This time, Nintendo are there, with a strong pack in title and their mascot. Third parties are bringing cross-platform games out to play, including the biggest of the year in Assassin's Creed 3 and Call of Duty. Third parties are bringing exclusive software--non-Nintendo exclusives on a Nintendo platform is an excellent start for the House of Mario, especially when it's as diverse as Zombie U, Rayman Legends, LEGO City Stories, Scribblenauts, Monster Hunter, Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2 within the first 6 months. And Nintendo haven't yet brought out their big guns, and they have plenty of big guns to choose from. Smash Brothers and Zelda are 2014 perhaps, but Metroid, Donkey Kong and 3D Mario can't be too far away. A new IP could be in the works. An older IP (Starfox, F-Zero, WaveRace) could be due for a revival. Nintendo's most talented teams (EAD 3, EAD Tokyo, Retro Studios) have yet to play their hand.

Things aren't bad at all for the first few months of the Wii U's life. The signs are there for a system with a strong range of titles that the Wii lacked from day one, with a Nintendo willing to bring out niche third party titles such as Bayonetta 2 to their system so they can get the hobbyist market excited and on-board. This isn't about replicating the Wii's success, because the Wii's success rested on a knife-edge of new gamers on the one hand, and demanding diehards on the other. This is about building broader, stronger, and ultimately deeper foundations for more sustained success and a healthier software ecosystem. You only need to look at Nintendo Land to realise that. Utilising a variety of their IP in one go, familiarising Wii U owners with different brands and different ways of playing on their new machine (Wii Sports relied on different variations of "swing this way", after all, and had only 5 games), across 12 mini-games that each contain a different number of single player and multi player options. It's not about drawing in the crowds with something that was, to all intents and purposes and however brilliant, a gimmick. It's about making sure that once the crowds are in, they stick around to buy more games. And even if the initial crowds are smaller, selling more software is ultimately what will drive the Wii U on to success.

(corrected some minor typos in my essay. Sorry guys...)

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Daniel Hughes on 18th September 2012 10:49am

Was the WiiU unveiled this month? Is it available this month? If you admit in your article that your argument is pointless and subjective, don't run the article. Such a shame that gi.biz is diluted with trivia like this these days.

I do see your point, however, PCs and Laptops also outsell consoles at a much higher rate too, all of which are capable of playing games. There is an overlap, but I see it more as an extension to revive/boost PC/Mobile gaming, not that's going to swallow up consoles altogether, at least not yet anyway. I think it will shape how we see them in the future though.

Another thing I would say is the relative prices of games/apps on each of the devices. On mobile and tablets they cost anything from about 69p but no more than £10, and the people that play games on these devices I guess would rarely pay anything above £5 (probably less). This doesn't allow developers to make fully fledged gaming experiences that a significant proportion of consumers want, nor that they want to develop. There will always be the core 'console' base in whatever form it takes, even if it's eaten into by Apple, Android and Windows (well in the next 10 years or so anyway). The 3DS hasn't been stopped so far, in little more than a year, selling 20m consoles, so if the right strategy is used, they're not an endangered species. I think Apple / Android have expanded the gaming market if anything, like the Wii did, rather than exclusively eat into the sales/profits of the others. They may take a small hit, but that's natural competition and variance.

A further point - no games console would ever match the hype of a new iPhone reveal in 2012. The Wii U has already been shown for a year (a bit unspectacularly at E3 but this doesn't make this a 'reveal' like the iPhone 5 hype). The only main new bit of information is the launch date. The iPhone 5 'buzz' was also quite anticlimactic, with many of the tweets actually showing an air of disappointment for the device. The Wii U on the other hand has slowly been building momentum for the past year, and is not relying on anything of the sort of false hype. It's more of a low key chain effect strategy, that is clearly going to work with the console preorders already being sold out in most stores.

Edited 2 times. Last edit by Dwayne Wright on 18th September 2012 11:24am

Early adopters will early adopt, but that uptake is unlikely to be sustained. If Ninty has half a million units ready at launch, they will sell them all, but it's later on they need to worry about.

Which is exactly why this comparison is irrelevant. If their is a need to grab the more casual focused audience AFTER the early adopter audience has swarmed the launch, then doesn't that suggest your marketing for that casual audience should be after that point as well?

If the casual market is not your early adopter market, then why would the broad casual market buzz be so important? It's not.

I kept telling people prior to last weeks event that this media event was going to be geared toward the core audience rather than how their E3 media briefing was geared toward the broad audience. And that's exactly what happened. All I heard after E3 was, "Nintendo didn't care for the hardcore, they went for the casuals again. Why should I, an X360 gamer, care for Wii U after that E3 conference?" Well, last weeks event was planned and designed to appeal more to that market that was disappointed with E3. And now here it is you guys are complaining that they didn't do enough last week to appeal to the casual audience.

I get it. Nintendo is in a catch-22. Appeal to the casuals, you'll write how Nintendo is again ignoring the core market. Appeal to the core market and you'll write about how they are going to fail to retain the casual market.

@Doug - A game with a good story might be more to your taste than a puzzle game like Angry Birds (or many similar titles found on PC/Console), but that doesn't mean the same it true of everyone. I would completely agree that I feel more ultimate satisfaction from playing through a single player story based game on my console, but the ease of access and the addictive nature of something like Super Hexagon (and other iOS games) completely overrides it for me and a growing number of traditional gamers.

Two years ago I would never have thought a tablet would become my primary gaming device. Now it most certainly has and I'm not alone.

Edited 3 times. Last edit by Wesley Williams on 18th September 2012 11:58am

Apple are, officially, the biggest company that ever existed. That their press event overshadowed another press event doesn't show a ripple in the force, in fact it's a sign that everything's proceeding as you'd expect. From here to spin out a thesis of how crushed Nintendo are is maybe interesting academically, but even then only to our small tribe. So to expect the mainstream press to be on the ball with this is silly - they ate their hats over the Wii's success and so (I'd guess) did most of the people on this forum, myself included.

IPhone's are premium personal devices. This is what I would call a family gaming device. Parents sort of trust Nintendo to provide and preserve some childhood fun and innocence whilst gaming. That's where they live in the minds of parents and that's a powerful and consistent place to be. As a parent myself, I will probably buy a Nintendo device for my son (and myself) when he is ready, as long as that culture and approach continues. Its simply a different market. End of.

I think this article loses an incredible amount of perspective about those who are not reliant on Twitter and would actually read anything tech orientated in the newspapers. That covers a massive section of the Wii installed userbase that will be courted by word of mouth and hands on experience.

Nothing in this article addresses how much of the iPhone 5 buzz was negative and I personally resent the myopic method by which a very narrow field of data was used an quite how much of a conclusion on the Wii U has been drawn from it.

Apple makes computer and smarthphones. Nintendo does videogames and their systems. End of discussion. Something created to just be a gaming device could never compete in popularity to a iphone/ipad. They're neither trying to compete.

- A phone is a modern necessity - a games console isn't
- Mobile device sales are subsidised for those who cannot afford to pay for the whole phone up front - i would like to see how well mobile phone devices sell if all consumers did not have the option to pay for the phone monthly, instead having to pay around £600 on day one.
- Games on mobile devices are mostly free or cost under £5-10 - development costs and time are drastically lower than those for games consoles and therefore have less development cost tied to them thus leading to lower price for the consumer. This is evident in the depth, gameplay and longevity of the product thus justifying the higher price tag for console games.

Comparing games consoles against mobile devices is bias, to the point where it borders on irrelevant.

Edited 2 times. Last edit by Scott Davis on 18th September 2012 4:12pm

Nintendo's Super Mario Bros, is the equivalent of Apples iPhone. Both are succesful brands.

3DS failed (before the price drop) because it was over priced. The WiiU is not. The WiiU also it has pretty impressive lauch titles. I cant see where Nintendo failed, simply because they are not called "iPHONE".

iPhone 5 is nothing special, its not a huge upgrade or departure from the current formula. It just sells cause its an apple product. Many other mobile phones have are very good or even better alternatives to the iPhone. But I phone doesnt just sell cause of the hardware. Its also its branding power and marketing muscle.

And the fact that apple will sue almost anybody for creating something similar. And they have the financial power to sue every person on the planet trying to do so. I mean common!!! They have a patent for a phone with rounded edges. thats like patenting a device thats colored yellow. prohibiting anyone from making a phone thats yellow.

Yes, the addressable market for Apple is a lot larger than for Nintendo (low console numbers in Asia exc Japan) so Apple builds as many iPhones as demanded for its market and Nintendo manufactures as many Wii Us as its factories allow so will encounter the usual out of stock issues post launch. The Wii U marketing hasn't kicked in yet but demand will outstrip supply so I have to support most of the comments here that the comparison between iPhone5 and Wii U is spurious. My forecast to end December is 2.5m to 3m units of Wii U sold through to consumers worldwide.

Buzz comes and goes. You can't control it (unless you are apple ;).
I think Nintendo had a great conference that spoke to the people who really care at this point - core gamers. Did you see the response regarding Bayonetta 2? Run a Twitter query on that. The core gamers heard what was happening. Casual gamers + Mom and Dad aren't going to care until the Christmas shopping season begins.

Nintendo made the right move and I think is getting very positive results out of what they did.
If Apple had announced the iPhone 5 in June of 2011, and then just done a press conference last week to announce the release date and price, the buzz numbers would be comparable.

However, since the situations aren't very comparable, the comparison in this article is badly biased. Being so obviously a bad comparison makes the article feel like it has an agenda, which is likely the reason for the emotional comments being posted hear.

I want the Wii u to succeed, but there is some valid points regarding the Wii u building Buzz.
My friends that currently or have owned a Wii seem to fall in two camps, they are not planning on getting a Wii u, and they will wait till its much cheaper if they get one at all. Most are big gamers and all have kids, and their kids aren't clamoring for it yet. That doesn't mean that they won't in the future, but this close to launch you would think there would be some excitement. My friends that own a Wii and are more casual didn't know much about it, and the ones that did thought it was an extra controller for the Wii.
I realize that this is a small sampling but it's a bit alarming to me that no one I personally know is getting one at launch, or planning on it for the holidays. With the Wii, some had them per-ordered at launch.

Personally, I own a few apple Devices, and love them, but I do not view Smartphones and tablets as replacements for console or PC gaming. Until Apple releases a controller dock, Im not sure I ever will. I will eventually get a Wii u im sure, but I don't feel the launch lineup begs me to get one now. When they have a 3D mario or Zelda game, im sure the temptation will be there.